School Notes: School of Medicine
May/June 2023

Professor takes lead of emergency medicine

Arjun Venkatesh became chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale School of Medicine and chief of emergency medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital on March 1. Previously he was an associate professor in the department and chief of its administration section. As chair, he plans to broaden the department’s research portfolio, whose funding ranks first in the nation, in ways that shape the practice of emergency medicine everywhere. He will continue developing its residency program—one of the largest in the United States—whose ongoing goal is to train the next generation of leaders in academic emergency medicine. Through the department’s partnership with the Yale New Haven Health System, Venkatesh also looks forward to enhancing access to quality acute care throughout the region that Yale serves, and he is committed to sustaining the department’s success in recruiting and retaining a diverse group of residents and faculty. Additional plans include elevating the visibility of the department’s vanguard programs in point-of-care ultrasound, emergency medical services, global health, simulation, and geriatric emergency care.

Leadership change at clinical investigation center

Brian Smith stepped down on February 1 from the codirectorship of Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (YCCI), to invest more time in his roles as deputy dean for clinical/translational research and chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine. Since 2019 Smith, in partnership with John Krystal ’84MD, has overseen tremendous growth and progress in clinical and translational research at Yale, ranging from robust investments in the center’s informatics infrastructure to expanded training and education of the next generation of investigators. David Coleman has rejoined Yale from Boston University School of Medicine to serve as interim codirector of YCCI. Coleman will focus on further enhancing YCCI’s responsiveness to the Yale research community and to institutional stakeholders. A national search for a new coleader of YCCI is anticipated within the next two years.